Cancer stem cells have been tracked. This is nothing less than watching tumours being born. I wonder what the cancer stem cell skeptics will think.

The sad downfall of Jonah Lehrer deepens, beginning with the revelation that he fabricated Bob Dylan quotes for his new book, leading to his resignation from the New Yorker, the pulling of his book, and more. I’ve promoted much of Jonah’s work on this blog, but this clearly violates the “don’t make stuff up” and the “make your thesis fit the evidence, not the other way round” rules of science writing. Amid the burst of shallow, reactionary, almost-gleeful pieces (summed up here), there were also gems. This piece by Bradley Voytek on “the deception ratchet”, this interview with Michael Moynihan who started things off, Alexis Madrigal’s short, punchy meta-take on the ideas culture (“When everyone makes media, everything is a news peg.”), Mark Liberman’s take on fabrication in the media, and Daniel Bor’s neuroscientist perspective on what this means for pop science writing, are all worth reading. That last piece is notable for relating how Jonah covered up an error by shunting the blame to his editor, before wilfully re-making that error. It’s awful to see someone being publicly pilloried, but that marks a point where my sympathy starts evaporating.

Science of history? “Cliodynamics” claims cyclical patterns in world history but some doubt whether it’s good science. Good Nature feature exploring the debate.

Superb piece on journalism’s failure to expose its own flaws. “Those who get it wrong spend a few days in the spanking machine and then it is back to business as usual…. Journalists assign a nobility to the profession that obscures the flaws within it…. The public isn’t buying.”

“‘Look mom, they’re wrestling!’ he would say. She would stop & look at me. I would slowly shake my head.” Eric Vance on dolphin sex

Drug-resistant gonorrhoea spreading around Europe. A slow clap for us. Also, that story led me onto Wikpedia’s entry on gonorrhoea, and this image. Beware the alluring clap-ridden femme, o brave tiny men of the military!

Comments (14)

Scott

A little tip on writing about transgender people – use the gender that they live in, or identify as. For Ben, don’t say “Fascinating profile of a transgender scientist on his/her experience and the science gap”, say “Fascinating profile of a transgender scientist on his experience and the science gap”.

You’ve transitioned from being single to being married – no-one would think of writing, “Fascinating profile of married journalist Ed Yong, where the singleton/husband describes his experiences.”

This is not the first time that someone has felt the need to inform me that a piece that is obviously satire is in fact, satire. Actually, when I included this, I thought, “Someone’s going to do that again. I know, I’ll stick the word “Heh” in front so that it’s clear.”

That net-casting spider is a first filmed in the wild? I thought that was done in a BBC Sir David Attenborough segment. Bola spiders were also included in that too (I think). I presume, then, that they didn’t film that in the wild.

btw, if you have an address where Sir David can be contacted, I’d like to send him a letter also (referring to your Twitter message) letting him know how he inspired me to go into the biology field (I changed careers, spent a lot of time in school, I was so inspired).

@David – Ah I see. It may be old, but it’s new to me. I saw it on Twitter and didn’t check the date.

@Daniel – A lot of the old wildlife documentary stuff, including a lot of Attenborough’s stuff, was filmed in captivity. He doesn’t pretend otherwise. If you check out, say, Life on Earth, it’s clear that a lot of it was filmed in a tank. Also: clever editing. When he did Life in Cold Blood in 2008, that was the first footage of a rattlesnake kill! Every other earlier piece of footage is a snake striking at a camera, and then later, a snake eating a mouse.

As to is address, yes, I have it but I tend not to give it out. (A lot of people ask!) It’s easily Google-able though.

Completely understandable, Ed. I did have the googlable address, but I’m never sure if those things are real or not. I did send an email letter to the Dear Sir David site. Perhaps I’ll print it off and mail it to the address I’ve found.

btw, I have no problems with the BBC filming some things in captivity–as you said, they don’t pretend otherwise. Why people suddenly got all upset because the polar bear cub births were filmed in captivity and not in the actual snow cave on the side of the mountain is rather bizarre (their ideology takes over, looking for an excuse to criticize Sir David for daring to mention climate, etc). BBC certainly didn’t hide that as it is mentioned on their website.

Enjoy Portland. I was supposed to be there, and then zipping up to Vancouver for the North American Ornithology conference the following week. But work schedule changed at the last minute and I was out west a few weeks earlier than I was supposed to be. sigh. Guess I’ll just have to be jealous.

Ed, a couple of things I’d like to say:
1) I don’t read science journalism… I come here because you find the interesting bits for me. Thanks.
2) “All the other houses have SUVs. He has treeferns.” is one of the best things I’ve ever read.
3) You also appear to have the only constructive comments sections on the entire internet.

Huh, I though Ed’s “his/her” original wording referenced the content of the article, that the scientist was discussing his experiences before and after. Experiences as “her” and then experiences as “him.”

I notice that “How to talk to a person in a wheelchair” doesn’t include “Don’t assume that because a person has physical difficulties, they’re also mentally challenged.” Perhaps the author of the article has experienced a consistently higher class of person than I have, the times I’ve been wheelchair-bound. People leaning way over and using baby-talk into the face of an adult who happens to be sitting is reprehensible. There’ve been a few times that my husband was so offended, on my behalf, that he wanted to slap the person speaking at me. Had a lot of sympathy for the people who insist on always using their various custom wheelchairs that put their heads at standing height.